If you had a partner, or better yet were with a group of canoes, you yell for help. It's a bit different solo.

On my first or second trip I was coming back from a fish guts run. I stopped to rinse out the smelly pan when I dumped for real. I was not thinking, so I was totally unprepared when a gust of wind caught the bow of the almost empty canoe. Luckily I was between two islands. Too proud to yell for help, I just grabbed the stuff as it floated by and threw it into the half swamped canoe. I found it wasn't easy getting it the 20 feet to shore. I came very close to drifting past the end of the island and out into nowhere. It was too late to yell by then. I didn't go out by myself for a while after that.

I've practiced getting back into a swamped canoe twice. The first time all I had on was shorts so it wasn't that hard in calm water. It seemed to work better near an end than the middle. I tried another time in the waves near a sand beach. I never made it in before I could stand and that's when I learned to never get between a wind driven canoe and shore. When the surf is pushing a canoe full of water nothing will stop it. It's like trying to stop a Buick!

In a real life 'n death situation, wearing rain gear, in big waves, on big water, I doubt that getting back in would be feasible. At least for me. For swimming lessons as a kid we had to remove sweatshirts and jeans before swimming across and back to pass the class and be able to swim on the "deep side." It was a real eye opener.

The plan has always been to avoid that situation. If that plan fails, the fall back is bail as much as possible so the canoe catches enough wind to blow to shore - IF the water isn't freezing and the nearest shore is down wind. If both of those things aren't true, all bets are off.

So hey, be careful out there!

Posted by db on July 24, 2001 at 14:15
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